Apple Butter

It’s hard to find any apple butter, let alone good apple butter in the grocery store these days. Making apple butter is a great way to preserve the fruits of an apple harvest.

In contrast to what the name implies, there is no “butter” in apple butter. The name comes from its smooth and buttery texture.

Apple butter is delicious on buttered toast. Although apple butter takes time to make (the sauce is slow cooked for at least an hour), the upfront part is easy. You do not have to peel or core the apples. The pectin for firming up the resulting jam resides mostly in the cores and there is a lot of flavor in the apple peels. After the first cooking, these parts get discarded as the pulp is run through a food mill.

Equipment Needed

Method

Preparing the Fruit

1 Cut the apples into quarters, without peeling or coring them (much of the pectin is in the cores and flavor in the peels), cut out damaged parts.

First Stage of Cooking

2 Put them into large pot, add the vinegar and water, cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cook until apples are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Measure out the purée and add the sugar and spices

3 Ladle apple mixture into a chinois sieve (or foodmill) and using a pestle force pulp from the chinois into a large bowl below. Measure resulting puree. Add 1/2 cup of sugar for each cup of apple pulp. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add a dash of salt, and the cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice, lemon rind and juice. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Second Stage of Cooking

4 Cook uncovered in a large, wide, thick-bottomed pot on medium low heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Scrape the bottom of the pot while you stir to make sure a crust is not forming at the bottom. Cook until thick and smooth (about 1 to 2 hours). A small bit spooned onto a chilled (in the freezer) plate will be thick, not runny. You can also cook the purée on low heat, stirring only occasionally, but this will take much longer as stirring encourages evaporation. (Note the wider the pan the better, as there is more surface for evaporation.)

Canning

5 There are several ways to sterilize your jars for canning. You can run them through a short cycle on your dishwasher. You can place them in a large pot (12 quart) of water on top of a steaming rack (so they don't touch the bottom of the pan), and bring the water to a boil for 10 minutes. Or you can rinse out the jars, dry them, and place them, without lids, in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes.

6 Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal. If you plan to store the apple butter un-refrigerated, make sure to follow proper canning procedures. Before applying the lids, sterilize the lids by placing them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Wipe the rims of the jars clean before applying the lids. I use a hot water bath for 10 minutes to ensure a good seal.

As an alternative to stove cooking the puree you can cook uncovered in a microwave, on medium heat to simmer, for around 30 minutes.

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I am going to try the apple butter, but was wondering if I needed the sieve or not. I just bought an apple peeler, corer and slicer. Do you think if I cooked them long enough I could get away without it?

Hi Julie – According to my parents, the experts, you could use crab apples but why would you go to the trouble? Crab apples are so small. Better to pickle them. We suppose that you could use regular white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar, but again, why would you? Apple cider vinegar will contribute to the flavor of the apple butter.

I have a silly question… can you use green tomatoes to make “apple butter”? I’ve read that you can use green tomatoes as a pseudo-apple substitute in pies. Was just curious, I’m starting to collect green tomatoe recipes and expecting to be inundated with far too many with the unstable Calgary climate.

I have researched many recipes of apple butter. I don’t understand why some call for apple cider vinegar and others use apple cider. Once when I tried the vinegar, mine came out too bitter and thin. I want my end result to have a deep brown color that is thick and rich in flavor.

Jenny – I’ve never heard of using green tomatoes as a substitute for apples. I think if you substituted them in this recipe what you would end up with is a sweet tomato paste.

Ann – Using cider vinegar or cider is a variation of the recipe and is really up to your taste which you prefer. We’ve experimented with both, doing batches side by side. We like them both. If you want a deep brown color that is thick, make sure you cook your apple butter a long time.

I moved to the country and inherited an apple tree. I just made my first batch of homemade apple butter using your recipe but was sorely disappointed in the result. Not from your recipe but from my childhood memory bank. I remember apple butter as much deeper in color and with a nutty flavor. What I got was sort of a sweet applesauce. Plus the most labor intensive (and boring) part of the making was pushing all that thick cooked apple mixture through a sieve. Why can’t I just peel and seed the apples and avoid this step?
Thanks for any advice you can throw my way.

The dark color comes from playing with your spices. Use cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Use dark brown sugar as well. Then slowly simmer on the stove as long as you want keeping it from burning. My mom’s alleviated was dark. A spicy, dark, tangy/sweet butter. Mine is as well, but I am generous with spices for the deep color

This may sound like a silly question but, how does one eat apple butter? Do you use it for spreading? On what? Or is it just to eat like applesauce? I have never heard of it but am always looking for new ways to use the wild apple trees in the area.
Thank you very much

Karen – there is still lots of sugar in this recipe! 1/2 cup for every 1 cup of apple pulp. If you make it without the added sugar, I would cut down on the vinegar as well. The vinegar balances out the sugar in the apple butter. If you don’t have as much sugar, you probably don’t need as much vinegar.

I used a mesh strainer. It was a bit labor intensive but I smoothed it all out with a hand blender. The butter came out well.
Also, I use cider and some cranberry/raspberry juice for liquid. Light brown sugar worked well. I like a tart apple taste so I used less sugar than called for in the recipe.

I found this recipe after I began the process of making my own (small) batch. After eyeballing several recipes, I just got so weary! I just went with what seemed intuitive and what I had on hand. I used dark brown sugar, some apple juice and a dash of cinnamon, cloves and allspice. After boiling it on the stove top, I threw the whole thing in the oven–300 degrees–for three hours.

After reading these posts, though, I decided to push the cooled potion through the mesh seive, rather than the food processor. The sieve was VERY tedious, but my apple butter is just what it ought to be: thick, sweet and dark. Perfect.
To anyone using the mesh seive, try using a sturdy rubbber spatula (calphalon, if you have one). I used a huge seive, and gently pushed the apple butter back and forth around the bowl of the seive. This seemed to get the job done a little faster than with a wooden spoon and hard pressing motions.

I have not made apple butter for years, but plan to this year. What I did after cooking the apples was to first strain any excess liquid off the apples. Then I put this liquid through some cheese cloth, then made apple jelly with it. Then I put the heavier, pulpy stuff, through the food mill and used it for the apple butter. That way I got apple jelly and apple butter too, and didn’t have to cook the pulp for hours and hours for it to thicken.

I also had a question. Is it necessary to use a boiling water bath to seal the jars? I stearalized the jars and tops, kept them in boiling water until ready to fill. After cooling, the jars sealed. But I was watching the food channel, and they used a boiling water bath to seal jars for jelly. Is that necessary?

Hi Mary Ann, what a great idea – to make apple jelly first! Regarding the boiling water bath, I am no expert on canning. Every set of instructions I see says you need to do a boiling water bath. In the case of this apple butter batch, I did not, but then I stored this batch in the refrigerator.

i have 2 questions. ok the first is this…..can i use fuji apples? i live in japan and have not found any of the other apples you mentioned. now for the second question….can i blend the apples after i cook them in my vitamixer(which is a blender)?
thanks for your time

Melody – a Google search reveals this information regarding Fuji apples. We eat our fujis because they are so wonderful raw and cook our granny smith and gravensteins. Regarding blending in a blender – that will give you apple sauce, not apple butter. Apple butter has a particular smooth consistency which you get from pressing the pulp through a sieve, chinois, or food mill.

Lopa and Myava – the vinegar is useful for creating the unique tart flavor of apple butter. Cider vinegar is preferred because it comes from apples and helps to enhance the apple butter flavor. You can substitute apple cider for apple cider vinegar, but the result is not quite as tart. I haven’t yet cooked with tamarind so I don’t know how that would affect the result.

Hi Elise,
For those with a Farmers Markets in the area, I have found Apple Cider Vinegar that is of high quality and bright flavor available from the apple farmers. It should be wonderful in something like this. If you’re going to go to the trouble, get the best you can find. I have a book suggestion for people interested in pursuing preserves and jams, “Fine Preserving” by Catherine Plagemann (forward by M.F.K. Fisher). Fun to read. She has a recipe for a cherry tomato jam, but not green tomato jam. Green tomatoes are made into pickles to go with hamburgers. My favorite recipe in the book is the Sunshine Strawberry Jam. As the name implies, you make it with sunshine. As for Splenda, I would send them an email and see what they say about using it to make jam. I have used it a little for my parents who are diabetic and could see using in a freezer jam recipe. I just don’t know if it holds up to long cooking as in this recipe. Happy cooking everyone! By the way, I love Elise’s recipes. I’ve made several, and she is extraodinary.

I use Splenda on all my Jam recipes. I cook everything first then remove it from the heat and stir in the Splenda. When making jam it foams a little. I scoop the foam off and start bottling. It tastes great. I can’t see why you can’t do the same with apple butter.

When I do my canning I do not use the boiling bath to seal them. I sterilize my jars in the dishwasher. Put Jars on a cookie sheet and put in oven when you are getting closer to can at 200 degrees. I put my lids in a pan of water and bring to a boil then turn the burner off. I remove one jar at a time fill it and leave 1/2 inch from the top. Wipe the lip of the jar to make sure it is clean. Put the lid on there and as they cool they will seal. There have been some that take a little longer and I was wondering if they weren’t going to seal. My husband said they just needed to cool some more. He held them under cold water from the tap and they popped right away.

I purchased a food strainer & sauce maker for the Cook’s Garden on line. It is great to use to make applesauce that is necessary for the apple butter. Also it can be used for tomato paste, juice, grapes, pumpkin or about any type of fruit or vegetable you want to use it for. It works great and I would highly recommend it. It takes a lot of the work out since it works as a seive and puts all the peel and seed out another port that where the sauce comes out.

I have a recipe that calls for apple butter however I do not have the time or equipment in order to make my own, and cannot find any at the local store. Do you have any substitutions. The recipe is for banana muffins.
Thanks.

Wonderful – I have been intending to make apple butter for a long time – I have never tasted it and I presume it is the same as ” appelstroop ” that is made in Holland – for slow cooking I also read a crockpot on low for eons

I was wondering if I could peel and slice the apples before cooking them, and then use a food processor instead of a food mill. I tried apple butter one other time, and you could have used it as tar to seal a leak in your roof. I don’t want to do that again. Thanks

Hi Lisa – the peel and core are important sources of flavor for the apple butter. If you peel and core and then put through a food processor after cooking, you will have apple sauce, not apple butter. If you don’t have a food mill, try pressing the pulp through a fine sieve.

A couple of notes for several posters… If you use a food processor, blender, or other such tool when processing apples or other fruit, you will break down the fiber in the fruit… This not only destroys a lot of the nutritional value, but also affects the gel “set” of your Jam, Jelly, Butter, Chutney or other item… You will find you have to increase the amount of Pectin or Cornstarch in the recipe, which will adversely affect the taste… You could just cook the butter longer, but that is very tedious… Try shopping online for your sieves, Ebay, etc… Use keywords such as “home canning equipment”, etc… Do not get your sieve at Williams-Sonoma unless you like to pay $120 for a $19.95 item… If you have “Smart & Final”, they sell several conical sieves that will work…

I have tried Elise’s apple butter, and I loved it so much I had to come here and get the recipe. It is the perfect balance of tart and sweet, with a lovely consistency. Taste your produce first so you know how tart your apples are, and adjust accordingly if necessary.

I truly appreciate this page with so many comments that address my own questions. One concern about the canning question–whether it will keep after a b-w bath depends on how acidic it is. You might want to consult the book Putting Food By, although the USDA probably has info too. Since apples are naturally low in acid, I am guessing the vinegar and lemon juice are to make it acidic enough for safe preserving. You probably don’t want to change those if you are going to can it. Storing in fridge should be OK for low-acid version though. Thanks for all the helpful tips!

I made this yesterday with european wild apples (miniature apples of 1 inch in diameter). When still warm, it was super delicious. But now… A thick crust formed on top and it’s a bit like there’s wax through it!

So a silly (I guess) question: do you keep the water/vinegear boiling juice in the recipe or do you scoop the apples out before pushing the pulp?

Lloyd, i’m not real sure what you’re meaning. The water and vinegar should be mostly gone once you cook the apples down. It should be like applesauce, with peels. If you’ve got much water left in the pot my guess would be you didnt cook the apples long enough. Once it has a chunky applesauce appearance is when i run it through the food mill.

“Hollyhocks and Radishes” by Bonnie Stewart Mickelson has a WONDERFUL Apple Butter recipe, but it calls for baking the resulting sweetened puree for as much as 8 hours in the oven (albeit at an extremely low temp of around 150 or 175) to evaporate.

The resulting apple butter is a bit darker than you may be used to, but the long baking time serves to blend the flavors completely, as well as making your entire house smell like apple butter!

Hi all…say, I’ve always made my apple butter this way…peeled, cored quarters, dribble of water, depending on type of apples, tea strainer full of whole anise seed (black licorish smelling/flavor), in a covered crock at 200degrees for three or four days… I stir each morning. After a couple of days, I use a potato masher if necessary, and add a little lime juice (the refrigerated type), a little cinnamon, and I go easy on the sugar…sorta taste each day, stir, add what I feel it needs…if it’s not totally cooked down by the fourth day, I’d probably blend it…
Now, here’s my question:
I’ve always canned it…but can I freeze it? and for how long?
Thanks,
Granny

Yesterday I made and tasted Apple Butter for the first time. I had searched the web for recipes and “winged” it as far as choosing the ingredients. What I did with my apples was peeled them, then used the apple corer to cut out the core and pre=slice the apples. I put in about 3 cups of water with about 60 apples total.
Yielded about 28 cups of “Applesauce” after boiling down. I then took my hand blender and pureed the recipe til smooth…then added my sugar (1/2 cup per cup of apples,) and then added Allspice, Cinnamon, Cloves and Nutmeg to taste/color. Brought it to a boil on the stove and then it simmered for about 6 hours on “medium” til it was dark brown with a very buttery smooth velvety texture.

I then did a hot water canning process and processed the jars for 15 minutes.

Being disabled I don’t have the hand strength to push things thru a sieve. Being a “newbie” at making this (I did it for friends who gave me the apples), I didn’t have the “equipment” everybody else has mentioned in this forum. So, I have no Sieve, no Food Mill,…but the hand held blender took care of smoothing it out, especially since I had already gotten the skin and seeds out.

I’ve used a food processor to chop my cored apples, mainly to speed up the prep time when a large batch of apples must be dealt with. (Also did pear butter the same way.) After running the cooked apple mush through a food mill, I add sugar and spices, then pour the mixture into 9 x 13 pyrex casseroles (or cake?) pans. I set my convection oven at about 275 degrees, and put the pyrex pans into the oven for about an hour. It is necessary to stir the mixture approx. every 10 minutes so that evaporation and thickening can be monitored. Rotate and/or reposition the pans as necessary.

Works well for me; the result is a thick, rich, mahogany-colored butter.

Hey there
I have never canned before and I am going to be making my first batch of Apple Butter in the next couple of weeks. My question is, when canning with the boiling water technique, how long does the apple butter need to be cooked in the jars?
Any help is appreciated.

I canned some apple butter in the fall of 2000. While cleaning my basement, I discovered 8 jars I didn’t know I still had. What are your thoughts on eating this? The seals are all still in place, as are the rings. And I used sanitary, accepted methods of canning when I processed it. I love applebutter and I hate to waste it, but…

Some many years ago, we had a concord grape vine that produced many grapes that my relatives took to make grape jams & jellys of. One year I had over a bushel of grapes left that no one wanted. I wasn’t anxious to go through the toil I’d seen the relatives do, so I experimented.
Concord grapes have a very thick skin that needs to be sieved out, but I tried throwing whole grapes into a blender. Boiling it down, the results looked like applesause but wasn’t the right flavor. Remembering that apple butter had flavors that might disguise the taste, I added those spices. The result was successfully passed off as “apple butter” and no one (excluding two apple butter experts) was the wiser.

Has anyone ever used the little red hot cinnamin candies to make apple butter? My Aunt in ky use to make it this way it was the best never found or had anything close to it since she died I wish I could of got that reciepe…

I love apple butter! I’ve been looking for a good recipe and this is the one. I think back to those wonderful breakfasts my mother made with fresh baked angel biscuits with butter and apple butter. There’s nothing like it. Thanks for such an awesome recipe. I’m off to buy me some apples!

If you live in Pennsylvania, you can buy excellent farm-made apple butter in the store. Wos-Wit. Or if you live near Amish or Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Indiana, they usually sell produce, canned and baked goods locally. The Old Order Mennonites here sell under a big tent every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Oh, my apple butter turned out great, I made it for a special crepe breakfast …and read all the comments, compared to other recipes, and worried………..but it’s thick, dark, and the only thing that worried me initially was it seemed maybe there was too much lemon, but this morning, after being in the fridge all night, it’s great. Thank you

I love any thing made with apples. I made apple butter a few years ago.It turned out like apple sause. I am so happy to see all this information on it. I know when I make it again it will turn out. I would think a little cranberys in it would make it good allso.

I make apple butter all the time and never use a sieve. Also I never use vinegar. Just apple cider. I use brown sugar to taste and way more cinnamon. If you like a nutty flavor add some nutmeg.

I cook mine for a lot longer too. It has to be cooked long enough to be apple butter and not apple sauce. Maybe that is why I do not need a sieve. If you cook it long enough the apples are buttery and quite frankly everyone tells me that my apple butter is the best they have ever had.

I know that its done when it starts to develop a crust along the side between stirring.

I never really timed it but I bet I cook it for about 4 hrs or longer on a real low heat in an open pot.

In old times they made it over an open fire and it cooked all day long in a big pot. Thats the best way to get good old fashioned apple butter.

I made this recipe this weekend, and was very worried about using vinegar. Took a jar to work today and everyone taste tested it. Now I am having a “women’s apple butter day”. They are all coming over to learn how to make this recipe for Christmas gifts. Thank you so much.

Instead of a sieve you can use a food processor or food chopper , it purees the apples really well after they cook and its a whole lot easier.

Note from Elise: Actually you do need a food mill or sieve for this method as you cook the whole quartered apples, including the cores and seeds. You need the food mill so that only the apple mush comes through, not the seeds and cores. The reason you cook the seeds and cores is for the pectin in them, which will help the apple butter set properly. You could peel and core the apples before cooking, but that’s even more work than using a food mill, and you don’t get the benefit of the flavor and pectin from the peels and cores.

I used Splenda instead of sugar in my apple butter and just a very small amount of water to get apples started cooking. Used lots of cinnamon, some ginger and allspice. Cooked all night (actually about 10 hours) and in morning apple butter was thick and almost smooth; bottled and refrigerated it as that is easiest. It is very delicious; as good as any I have ever had and better than some.

I loosely followed the apple butter recipe and loved it! I didn’t have apple cider vinegar on hand, but had Apple Wine Vinegar with Lingonberry from IKEA and used it instead. I used Winesap apples and put roughly the amount of sugar and spices, but no lemon zest. I reduced the apple butter for a longer time at a lower temp. Very pleased with the results. Thanks for the recipe.

Anyone interested in apple butter may also be interested in an apple butter festival held every fall for at least 30 years in Groveport, Ohio. Apple Butter Day, held each year on the 2nd Saturday in October, offers music, homemade crafts and skilled craft demonstrators, all located in and around the grounds of the Village’s 1820’s Log House. It is lots of wholesome fun and you can taste apple butter and other foods made with apple butter. Entertaining and educational!

I made apple butter for the first time last year. My own trees had an abundance of apples. Don’t think I’ll be as blessed this year. I got an apple peeler and it cores and peels and cuts in rings all at the same time. I just put it all in my crockpot and turned it on. Cooked for 8 to 10 hours and then added the sugar and cinnamon and cloves. Canned. It was wonderful. Not hard at all.

Jane Headley, I just wanted to say THANK YOU. After reading all these post’s I felt that I really had messed up for I never used vinegar either. I peel my apple’s approx-5 and a half LB’S 4 cup’s sugar 1/4 of teaspoon of clove’s , 2 teaspoon’s cinnomin, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher or sea salt. I cook it in a crock pot over night [at least 12 hour’s] then pour into hot jar’s and then do a hot bath for 15 min. I peel , core and chopp them in my food processor. I guess God has truly watched over me for it has alway’s turned out perfect. It is dark and very creamy just like my grandmother’s was. Good luck to all and if you have any question’s please feel free to e-mail me at vickifletcher at att dot net.

I tried this recipe today and was VERY pleased with the results. It was very similar to what I remember my grandmother’s apple butter being like, except it was not quite as dark colored. Thank you for posting this recipe, it was easy enough for me, the beginner!!

Apple butter and apple sauce do freeze very well. Crab apple butter is even better and you don’t need vinegar. My Mother and Grandmother usually made crab apple butter after making jelly. Putting it in the oven is easy in a large roasting pan, especially with a larger batch.

I tried apple butter for the first time today. I accidentally left it over night, so it cooked for almost 20 hours as opposed to 6… but some turned out. But the flavor is like apple jam or apple sauce. and the consistency was like very thick apple sauce. Did I do it right? My husband says he thinks it’s right, but I thought I’d check.

Hmm. I’m wondering where the idea for cooking it for 6 hours came from. This recipe calls for cooking it for an hour or two, on the stove-top, with regular stirring. I’ve never had to cook apple butter for more than 2 hours. The flavor should be spicy, sweet, and sour. Sour because of all that vinegar, but sweet too. The consistency is like very thick, smooth applesauce. ~Elise

The idea just came to me … if you don’t have a seive and want to skip that step YET still have the flavor and pectin from the seeds, cores, and peels …. then why not peel, core, and seed but add the peels, cores, and seeds in something like a cheese cloth for the cooking and then easily remove the packet and just mash the apple butter or LIGHTLY pulse it in the food processor. Any ideas on this? It sounds like a easy way to get the best of both methods. BUT I think of this NOW as my quartered apples simmer … and I don’t have a sieve. I guess I will try to push it all through my collandar. *SIGH* Sounds like a long night ahead for me. My HUGE pot has 5 gallons of quartered apples in it.
I am a breastfeeding/cloth diapering mother of 8 homeschooled children always trying to cut a corner.
Brooke

I make apple butter every year because I dislike cloves in the store bought ones so I make my own. I grew up without it being used and cooked in huge kettles outdoors under a fire. My recipe is simple. I peel, core, and slice (I have a peeler that does all this for me) the apples and put them in a large pot. I use enough to fill the pot almost to the top. Then I pour enough apple cider to cover it and cook it slowly for hours. I usually do it in the evening and then turn it off when I go to bed, and then cook more the next day. I then add brown sugar and white sugar, the amount depending on the sweetness of the apples and then cinnamon. Then I cook it more. No sieving, no blending. After it’s done and a nice dark color I let it cool and then fill up little plastic freezer containers and freeze it. I don’t can so freezing does very well. If you cook it long and low then it doesn’t need sieving if you peel and core them. The peels and cores left over can used to make apple jelly if you don’t want to throw them out.

Hi Elise, I have two quick questions. Can I substitute pears? My in-laws are on a special diet and they can’t have apples. Also where did you buy your seive? I can’t find it anywhere online. Maybe I’m not searching the right way. Can you please direct me? Tis the season for fruit/pumpkin butters and I could really use one! Thanks a million.

I just posted a recipe for pear butter using the same technique, but with Bartlett pears and different seasonings. Regarding the sieve, the chinois we use I think you can find at William Sonoma, online or in stores. Good luck! ~Elise

I tried this recipe today. I was given a bushel of apples that I wanted to make jelly out of, but the thought of tossing the apples when I was finished cooking them for jelly seemed wrong. I decided to try your recipe, my husband loves apple butter. I just took the apple pulp, measured it and added the 1/2 cup sugar for each cup of pulp. I have very tart apples so I left out the vinegar and it was perfect. I actually cooked mine in the microwave at 70% power and it thickened and browned nicely. My 1 year old kept coming through the kitchen to beg for more. It was definatly worth the extra time and a great way to use apple pulp left over from making jelly. Thanks for the recipe!

What a great web site!! I live in Groveport Ohio and we have Apple Butter Day on the second Saturday of every October. Anyway, My daughter and I were looking for a way to make apple butter and here is the place to find many ways. We have always made applesauce from my grandmother’s method, which was to quarter the apples, remove the cores and the bad spots, cook in a large pan with enough water to barely cover the apples until the apples slide off a fork when poked with it. The water is then drained and we put the apples through a food mill for pink applesauce. Depending on what type of apples you use, sweeten as you go. From the looks of it, we are already on the way for the apple butter making! As for the food mill, it is well worth the 19.99 investment at a variety store. Truthfully, we have gotten several from thrift stores for two or three dollars each, and gave them to my sisters (4 of them), and my nieces as practical gag gifts for Christmas. Aside from the above mentioned delights, we use it for mashed potatoes (never had a lump), baby food (vegetable or tender meats); and I haven’t tried it yet, but I wonder how it would do to make bologna or hot dogs squishy enough for sandwiches for the kids.

” The water and vinegar should be mostly gone once you cook the apples down. It should be like applesauce, with peels. If you’ve got much water left in the pot my guess would be you didnt cook the apples long enough. Once it has a chunky applesauce appearance is when i run it through the food mill.”

I think you should say this in the recipe. My understanding was to cook the apples until soft–which they were after 20 minutes, as the recipe says. Not mash them until they make applesauce, which incorporates a lot more fluid than plucking the apples out, which is what I did.

I don’t think you’re going to wind up with applesauce consistency after merely cooking the quartered apples. You’d have to do some mashing, which the recipe doesn’t state.

I wound up with thick apple spread, with no jam-like consistency. More like apple spread. Too bad.

Hi Mike, you need to run everything through the food mill. The apples only need to be soft enough to do that, you don’t have to mash them. But you do need to run everything through the food mill. Also, apple butter is an apple spread, a thick apple spread. It is not set and chunky like jam. ~Elise

I did not use a food mill and still got the right consitency. I peeled and cored the apples, cooked them for a long time, 2 hours, and then used an immersion blender to smooth it out. It looked just like apple butter in terms of texture. Then I started the second cooking step.

I didn’t peel or core (yay!), whirred in a blender, then pressed through a mesh strainer. It worked a treat. I turned to Simply Recipes when I’d been stirring for about an hour–Fannie Farmer says “Cook quickly to thicken”. Hah!

One major note: wear pot holders while stirring. I got small burns from the glorping even at gentle temps.

After 2 solid hours of stirring (well, an hour with a break for internet searching), I got some pretty darn fine apple butter. Plan to use with cream cheese on something (crumpets? scones?) tomorrow.

Hi, Elise–just finished making my second (doubled) batch of apple butter using your recipe; I made it last year to rave reviews, so it’s now a must-make in my holiday gift baking/canning. The only thing I do differently is use apple cider in place of the water, and I love the extra tang the cider vinegar gives it. For the others who keep wondering if they can get by with peeling/coring to forego using a food mill or sieve, it’s really best to follow the recipe exactly as Elise describes it. I was able to pick up a food mill for a few dollars on eBay, and it makes quick work of the cooked-down apples. Totally worth the investment. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!

We made this recipe over the weekend and found that the recipe as stated came out more sticky/jam-like than what I wanted. We tweaked it a little bit and found that using just 1C of sugar and half the amount of spices and lemon juice/zest made the perfect batch of apple butter. Thanks for the recipe.

I wanted to make a apple cake and in the recipe they have asked for apple butter ( shop bought), we don’t get this in Belgium. Can I make this apple butter for using in the cake?

Yes, but you’ll the best results if you make apple butter in summer or fall, when apples are in season. The best apple for apple butter making is the gravenstein which comes ripe in the Northern Hemisphere in July. ~Elise

I’m making this for the first time. Do I drain the inital cooking water/vinegar from the apples and discard then mash the apples into the bowl or do I drain the water into the same bowl that I am mashing my apples into?

Do not drain the apples! Just mash them into the cooking liquid. ~Elise

I love this recipe, Elise! I had some left over Granny Smith apples that I wanted to use up. I found your recipe and decided to give it a try. I solved the pulping process by using my VitaMix blender. I just dumped all of the nicely cooked apples, seeds, skins and all into it. It took two batches. It was smooth and pureed in a few minutes. I followed the rest pretty much the same except I used raw sugar and cut the amount in half. All of my ingredients were organic. I love the tangyness of the apple cider vinegar. I will definitely use this recipe again.

I make “zucchini” butter using the apple butter recipe (heavy on the apple cider vinegar) and add a packet or two of powdered hot apple cider drink mix. It turns out yummy and people are always surprised to find it is zucchini.

I make cranberry jelly but I do not use hot water bath method I put wax on top of hot jelly it works fine and have use it a year later and it is fine. Do you think I can use this method with apple butter?

Great question. As long as you 1) sterilize the jars, 2) do not reduce the sugar in the recipe or the vinegar, and 3) do not allow the temperature of the mixture to drop below 190°F while you are putting them up in jars, you should be fine. Preserving with paraffin wax on top is an old way of sealing the preserves that has somewhat fallen out of favor because it can be hard to get a good seal and sometimes mold develops. Sugar is the main preservative in apple butter. To make sure you have enough sugar so that its preservative qualities work, add at least 1/2 cup of sugar for every cup of apple mixture. Do not reduce this ratio. ~Elise

OMGosh, I made this recipe yesterday and it’s simply the best apple butter I have ever tasted. I read through each and every comment before I started, and I made sure that I followed the recipe to a T. Because I read the comments, I made sure that I cooked and stirred long enough. I also cooked my apples with the peels, core and seeds and pressed it through a Chinois. My butter was at the perfect color and consistency. I added some extra spice to my taste as per Elise’s instructions and it was “Perfect”. Thank you so much and I will be canning some more in the upcoming week. I really think the apple cider vinegar over apple cider is what makes this so perfect, it really adds such a nice tart to the sweetness.

I made a batch and forgot the lemon juice ’til the end of the cooking period. the apple butter is tasty but loose like apple sauce – did the absence of lemon cause this or do I need to cook the mixture a bit longer to reduce it some more. it has an excellent taste!

The omission of lemon juice likely had very little to do with the resulting texture. Sounds like you needed to cook it longer. Sometimes it can take a long time to cook that apple butter down enough. I tend to use a wide pot to cook it, so that it gets maximum evaporation surface. I pull up a stool and sit next to the pot, fan going, stirring, to help with the evaporation. You don’t want the heat too high, or the mixture will stick to the bottom and burn. And you don’t want it too low, or it will take ages to reduce. Some apples are more pectin-y or cook up thicker than others (even from the same tree!) ~Elise

To everyone asking about the chinois and/or food mill, I ended up using a mesh strainer (not so fine that, say raspberry seeds wouldn’t get through but too fine for apple seeds to pass through it). We have a very very small chinois but I just wasn’t willing to process a bunch of apples through it (that would have been either exceedingly tedious or very very messy). The apple butter is cooling right now, but from what I can tell passing it through the strainer worked fine. I did pass it through twice for good measure but the second pass didn’t take too long.

Like a couple people on here, I ended up using a wire mesh strainer as well. It was a bit tedious, so here’s a tip or two for anyone else who may want to try this: make sure the apples are super soft before even attempting to do this (I’m talking about skin-falling-off soft). If you let the apples cool for a bit, you can “grate” the apples on the mesh with your hands–it goes much faster than using a rubber spatula, that’s for sure. After “grating,” you’ll have some small apple bits too little to hold–take a spoon and “squish” the bits against the back of it and the mesh. It’s a tad messy but it gets the job done.

I tripled the recipe, using about 13 pounds of freshly picked organic apples. Cannot remember all of the names, but I used 5 different varieties ranging from super sweet to very tart. I strayed from the recipe in 2 ways – one was that I used a little less sugar, and replaced one cup of the white sugar with brown sugar. The other was that I cooked my butter for around 5 hours, until it was very thick and dark in color. By the time I was done reducing it down to the consistency that I wanted, there was only enough to fill 5 pint jars + a half pint jar. 5 hours of stirring and stirring and stirring. My arm and wrist are killing me. Definately a labor of love, but I kept thinking about what a great addition this is going to be to our family Thanksgiving meal, so that kept me going : ) Anyways, thanks for the recipe – it’s much appreciated!

I saw a recipe that also added some butter (not sure how much), would this be okay as it seems it would add some buttery flavor? Also, how soon can you open a jar and start using it? Thanks.

Sometimes jelly or jam recipes add 1/4 teaspoon (a small dab) of butter to a recipe to keep the jelly or jam from foaming up too much while it is being made. Foaming up is not an issue with apple butter. As for opening a jar, as soon as it cools. ~Elise

Imagine high winds just before harvest with two heavily-laden apple trees in the back yard and you have an inkling of the horror my girlfriend woke up to earlier this October. Almost the entire harvest of her big, beautiful apples scattered haphazarly over the ENTIRE backyard. This carnage was enough to make my frugal heart weep.

I had just received the pear butter recipe and it prompted me to search this site for an apple butter recipe.

The recipe turns out beautifully as written. Fortunately for me, the apple cider vinegar makes it lightly too tangy for anyone else in the family to eat on toast except me. However, never one to just stick with the recipe, after the first batch I ventured out slightly. I have added about 2 tbsp of unsulphered molasses (one glug) and 2 tsp of homemade vanilla. I also threw the lemon rinds (minus seeds) in after zesting and squeezing out the juice. This increases the pectin as it would when making marmelade. This version was much more popular with the family. Sigh…

My husband decided he should get in on the act and make a barbeque sauce. This is the recipe we based it on: http://www.recipezaar.com/Apple-Butter-Barbecue-Sauce-263228 Again, though, we didn’t follow the recipe exactly. We omitted the liquid smoke as we used sweet smoked paprika powder (1/2 tsp). All I can say is WOW! And this deliciousness was all because of Elise and a windstorm. Strange how the forces of nature work together!

I pass on this site address at every opportunity. I’m not sure which I enjoy more; the recipes (always delicious) or the comments (informative, thought provoking and entertaining). A lovely community to be part of.

I made this about 2 weeks ago!! I let it cook for a good hour or more stiring it every so often so not to burn on the bottom!!! I got 6 small jars out of the recipe! I found this recipie easy and fun, since I had never made anything like this before. Best of all everyone I gave a jar to said it tasted wonderful. I gave some to me grandma who used to make applebutter many years ago and she told me it tasted better than anything she had ever made.! So I give this 2 THUMBS UP and if I had more thumbs they’d be up too!!!

The key to thick apple butter is to cook it down. We just got together as a family and made over 100 jars of apple butter. Cook the sauce until when you drop a tablespoon on a plate or bowl no or minimal water seeps out around the edge of the dollop of sauce, then you know it will not be watery. Using a sieve is OK but using a Squeezo Strainer of Victorio Strainer is so much easier. To use them you just wash quarter, cook to soften the apple and put through strainer and you have wonderful apple sauce.

The only way I make apple sauce or apple butter is with a Kitchen Aid Mixer.
Buy 1 food grinder stand mixer attachment & buy 1 Fruit & vegetable strainer parts (attachment).
I can strain a big giant pot of cooked apples in less than 15 minutes. Peels/cores/seeds go out one way and strained apple sauce out the other. (If you don’t like the core omit it), but still no need to take the time to peel the apples. After I bought mine, I loaned it to my mother-in-law to try; and she decided it was so easy that she had to have one too.

I just made 9 quarts of applebutter, I used one bushel of Johnathan apples, 7 lbs. of sugar and 2 packages of cinnamon candies called dots. I simply washed and cut the apples in four pieces and took out the core, then cooked them until tender, run them thru a food mill, which took out the peelings and left applesauce. I cooked this for 16 hours in a large electric cooker on 350 degrees, stirring frequently so it would not stick… it is delicious on hot biscuits.. a lot of time, but well worth the effort. This will last our family for at least 2 years and some to give to special friends also.

If you are running the apples through a food mill anyway, there is no reason to core them. The cores have lots of flavor and pectin. ~Elise

Made three batchs this weekend which turned out GREAT! I don’t have a seive, so I simply cooked the apples down after coring and cutting them into walnut-size hunks. I didn’t peel the apples by the way. After they started to get mushy, I scooped cups full into the blender and pureed the mixture very well. Then the entire batch went back into the pot and I added the spices and cooked for a good hour on med low.
When the contents were thick enough I proceeded to can the apple butter.
BUT note: My apples were picked in sept and have been sitting several months in the cool garage. So they are not crispy any more, which I think resulted in a quicker cooking process!
Also I cut down the vinager to 3/4 c and added more water to make one cup… plus I cut down on the sugar as well. Just suiting it to my taste.

I personally found my seive in an old box of junk in my late grandmothers house! you could ask your elders or check estate sales and garage sales as well! those are perfect places to find cheap canning supplies!

Yay! This is exactly what I came online to find. Looks like our apple tree’s fruits won’t go to waste this year. Hope to report on the results. Thanks Elise. (I love that you gave the canning instructions too.)

I love apple butter. I remember my mother actually used to put some butter into it. I sometimes do it as well but only if I am not canning the apple butter afterwards. Anyway, I find apple butter great when baking. I have to cook without eggs, which is a real pain, and the apple butter gives the cakes a nice texture that is difficult to achieve otherwise.

I am making this as we speak (read)…My apple tree is totally overproducing this year so I got an early start. I’m cooking the apples with both cider and vinegar. I used a Williams-Sanoma apple slicer to remove the cores.(I am ever the lazy one) I will then throw it into the old vita-mix then add the sugar and cook down until it reaches maybe the halfway mark…..This I use to mix with other fruit ie: strawberries and blueberries to make a fruit spread. Absolutely out of this world. My husband raves about it and the friends beg for it at Christmas time. I have also used the cinnimon/redhots for just the apple butter which is a big hit at Christmas as well. Happy cooking

Elise, this is a wonderful recipe! I have loved apple butter since I was a kid, but had never made it. I used your recipe and substituted pumpkin pie spice for the allspice. It was the best I’ve ever had! I also used all of the apple, core and all and used my Vitamix to purée it. It freezes well too, thanks for sharing!

Elise,
I made the recipe exactly as you said and it is WONDERFUL !
I must say, you are a patient person! You have answered the same questions over and over for 5 years, LOL.
Folks … in a nutshell … Spend the $$ for a food mill or a china cap/chinoise it’s worth it, you can even drain your spaghetti in the china cap. They aren’t much more than $25.00 on ebay.
If you use the whole apples, you must strain, unless you want to pick pieces of the core and skin out of your teeth. No food processor, no blender. You also need no pectin, it’s what thickens the apple butter, it’s in the core and skin.
If you peel and core, you will probably need pectin, which is a product made from the skins and cores of apples!
Thanks again for this recipe.
Lin

I have found the simplest method of making apple butter by peeling, seeding and slicing the apples and placing them in the oven at 250 degrees until the apples are thoroughly cooked (over night is perfect)into a smooth mush. I then add the sugar and spices to my liking and then cook for another half an hour before canning. The results are creamy thick darkened best ever apple-butter.

I made mine without a sieve or food mill. I happen to own a potato ricer, so I just put the apple pulp in it and squeezed until it was difficult. The peels and seeds left in the bottom were discarded. There was some pulp that was lost when it flew from the ricer, but I was done in 5 minutes and got a nice, smooth, consistency.

I made my first batch of apple butter this weekend. I used a can of frozen unsweetened apple juice concentrate to about a crock pot full of cooked and sieved apples and cooked it on low for 24 hours – stirring a few times, but not really watching it.

It cooked down about half, got nice and brown and thickened up. After cooling to warm, I used my Instablend to get it nice and smooth, popped it into half pint jars and put it in a canner for 15 minutes.

I think the pectin from the peels and core got released during the pre-cooking process – prior to putting it through a food mill.

Making some more this weekend from my boss’s free apples. :)

The frozen apple juice concentrate added just the right amount of sweetness without added sugar. I didn’t use vinegar. But added cinnamon, allspice and cloves to taste.

After making a cider based recipe from my friend’s mom, I decided to check online to see what other recipes I can try in the future. I loved the fact that the recipe I used called for the milled apples to be cooked for 2-3 DAYS on low heat in a crockpot (I used my french oven) and so our whole place smells fabulous! Slowly the steam escapes, the pectin does its thing, and the dark magic that results is the best darn apple butter I’ve ever had. I’m reading lots of things about the labor of the food mill; we just went ahead and got the attachment for the stand mixer. Took about 10 minutes to mill all the apples with very little waste. Can’t wait to try this one now that I know how as I’ve never been disappointed with a simply recipes venture :-)

Just wanted to let you know that while I used a different recipe, I used your technique and LOVED this! I boiled approx 50 lbs of apples in enough apple cider to cover them in the pots for approx 30 min. They weren’t cored or peeled…yay! Then ran everything through my food mill with the fine plate. Then I did cook everything on the stove for about 2 hours. This didn’t do the trick (and DESTROYED my stove…took hours to clean it!). Then I popped all 4 pots in the oven at 300 degrees overnight (approx 14 hours) and I woke up to phenomenal apple butter! At first this seemed daunting, but next time I know the following: 1 lb of apples will make a cup of apple butter; no peeling or coring, just some elbow grease with a good food mill; pop that bad boy in the oven and sleep on it! Viola! Fabulous, easy, no-extra-sugar-added, delicious apple butter! Thanks for this great resource!

Wonderful recipe, thank you. I made mine with Royal Gala apples, as that is what I had an over-abundance of, and it is delicious. So versatile too – so far I’ve used in in place of the cinnamon mix for cinnamon rolls, on bread and toast, and in an apple pie.

I use brown sugar only, no vinegar and the food mill on boiled gravenstein apples, then put it all in the oven, too…overnight. waking up smells like christmas. it takes a while and muscle to food mill 50LBS of apples, but it is always a hit for presents and at school events

I eat and prefer unsweetened applesauce. I notice that you posted a minimum amount of sugar to use in this recipe and I am wondering if this is because you are making apple butter (not applesauce) or if you stated this because it would not can properly. I would prefer not to use sugar other than that in the apples and if it is possible to do so with your recipe I would appreciate knowing that. Most “unsweetened” recipes I’ve found use Splenda, which is not what I have in mind! Thanks for sharing your expertise.

Apple butter, the way I was raised enjoying it, has a sweet/sour flavor. You get the sour from the vinegar which is balanced by the sugar in the apples and the added sugar. The recipe above is one that we have used successfully for many years with the apples we grow on our trees, mostly Gravenstein and Granny Smiths. There are other ways of making apple butter, and many different variations of the end result. You could take your apple sauce, that you made without any added sugar, and just cook it down. Some people do this in the oven, by spreading a thin layer over large baking pan. But doing that will give you a very different taste than the apple butter in our recipe. So, to answer your question, regarding our recipe, yes, you must use added sugar, along with vinegar. But, there are so many ways of making this, so if you don’t want to add sugar, I suggest looking online for another recipe. ~Elise

I tried this recipe and was pleased, but I made a few changes. I don’t have a chinois or food mill, and couldn’t afford to go buy one, so I cooked my apples soft, ran them through my food processor, and put it all in the crock pot. I cooked it on low overnight with the lid off. The next morning I ran it all through the food processor again on high speed for about 60-90 seconds, and put it back in the crock pot and cooked it on high till it looked dark enough and thickened up enough. I LOVE what I came out with. It was thick and smooth. I did have to pull the seeds out while it was cooking with a teaspoon, but that was fine. I pulled most of the seeds out while I was cutting the apples. Over all this has great flavor, mild but rich.

I also cooked mine in kombucha vinegar and lemon juice instead of the apple cider vinegar. I know that the cooking killed any of the prebiotics in the kombucha, but the flavor was nice.

I have a great recipe for using all this yummy apple butter. It’s called Apple Butter Pizza!
Spread apple butter on a baked pizza crust. Cover with cooked chicken, caramelized onions, roasted garlic and sharp white cheddar (we use a 3 or a 6 yr old cheddar, the sharper the better). Bake at 400 until cheese is melted. Enjoy.

We also grill our chicken after shaking on a little granulated garlic, it just intensifies the flavour. I don’t put on amounts because its all to taste. For example, we use about 20 cloves of roasted garlic. that’s probably too much for most people.

I decided to try this recipe for apple butter because we make this pizza often and its hard to find apple butter in the store.

Please note that pectin is found in the apple peel and also in the seeds, not primarily in the core as stated above. Additionally, sugar aids in the “setting up” process of the apple butter (or jams/jellies/preserves). You can alter the ratio of sugar:apples but keep in mind that the less sugar you use, the less firm it will be unless considerably more cooking time is involved in your process.

How many apples is 4 lbs? I have made sauce many times but never butter and do not remember how many apple to use

Hard to say. Apples come in different sizes. If you don’t have a scale, look in your pantry for items that have a stated weight, for example a bag of rice. Then compare the weights of the apples with that. ~Elise

thanks a lot for this recipe. We first came across Apple Butter during a visit in the US 3 years ago. I have made it according to your recipe (lots and lots) in 2009 and it lasted through winter 2010. I am going to make a new load of apple butter this week. My first try left me with runny apple butter, but another 2 hours of simmering did the trick very nicely.

This time I will replace the apple vinegar by cider. Do I have to use the Anglo Saxon / British kind of cider or will French cider do? French cider is milder than the British version. Well, we shall see and may be I will tell you about it when I am done.

It is such a lovely gift for our friends here in Germany and my family loves it, too.

Hello all. I make my apple butter in a crock pot. That way I don’t have to stand by the stove. It has always turned out well. The key is to not get into a rush, it takes time to result in a rich, dark, smooth and delicious apple/pear/peach butter. I’ve made mine with and without cider and vinegar and it’s just as good…it’s simply a matter of prefrence. however, one must have a sieve or food mill to make fruit butter. Good luck to everyone and enjoy!

I just made apple butter over the weekend. I had a recipe but did deviate a little. I used my vitamix. I put a very small amount of water in the bottom of the blender then added the quartered pcs. of apple. I included peel, seeds, core and sometimes even the stem. I poured the pureed apples into a slow cooker then added my spices. I let it cook overnight but it still needed more cooking time the following day. This was the cleanest way to make apple butter. No peeling or using equip. to strain the apples. The butter was so creamy and full of flavor! Very smooth texture. I’m guessing it’s higher in fiber because the peel is contained in the butter.

I bought apples quite a few years ago from an elderly lady who was making apple butter at the time. We started talking about how we each made it and she told me (and showed me) that she cooked it in the oven. She said it did not burn and you did not have to watch it all the time. It came out wonderful. I wondered if you had ever tried it this way and what you thought about it. No one else since has ever heard of it. I did make it her way and it was so easy not to have to worry about it burning.

I have not, but several commenters have with success, if you read through the comments. ~Elise

Elise, after reading all of the amazing comments, I will be making your apple butter and a chipotle version of your apple butter. As gifts for the holidays this year, I’ve made Blueberry Ginger Lavender Butter and Peach Ginger Butter. I think your apple butter will be a wonderful addition! Thank you so much.

Hi Elisa, thank you for sharing your recipe. I would surely wuld like to try it out. But I would like to make a sample first before a big batch. I have approx. 6 apples with me, please could you let me know, how I would need to adjust the recipe accordingly? Also, how much is a smallest quantity I could make and how many apples would I need for it?

Hi Elise
I have just made my first batch of Apple Butter and followed your recipe (almost exactly – only put In 1/4 teaspoon cloves, but added 1/4 tsp nutmeg and a dash of ginger). Unfortunately the 2 tsp of cinnamon was much to overpowering, but fortunately the garden has many apple trees, so was able to cook up another batch (not the full 2 kg [4 lbs]) of apples only, which has reduced the strong cinnamon flavour
AnneOx

Yes, for this recipe, all you have to do is cut the apples. Of course if you encounter a worm in the core, please cut out that core, otherwise leave the cores and the seeds. Once the apples are cooked, you’ll push them through a food mill or chinoise, leaving the tough core bits behind.

Hi Elise. I would like to make this recipe without sugar. Do you think it will affect the consistency? Also I wonder if it will still have a sweet taste (of course I am aware that it won’t be the same as with sugar). Thank you!

Hello Catalina,
The distinctive taste of apple butter is sweet and sour. If you don’t add sugar, there will not be enough sweetness to offset the vinegar and the result will just be sour, not sweet and sour.

do you know that you can make applesauce or apple butter using zucchini instead of apples … i also use zucchini in almost all apple recipes … works great :) just saying (lol) happy canning & baking to all :)